Shortly before I started my photographer's career in 2012, times were very challenging for me because I didn't have a job for 6 months straight. The only job I could find was an online coupon agency, just like Groupon, but local. It was an extremely demanding job. I was in charge of the creative department and was an editor as well for online ads of different local businesses. Many of these businesses I didn't even know but still had to make them look like they were “the bomb“. It was an 8-hour straight job in front of a computer creating the ads, answering emails, making phone calls and doing customer service and I was doing all this trying to be as charming and convincing as Steve Jobs, but I felt absolutely miserable. One day I decided to send some pictures of mine to a photo contest advertised in a local paper. So I sent some I used to take during very relaxing photo-walks around Puerto Vallarta with my wife Melissa on my days off. And guess what? I won. And the prize was a position as a 1st photographer in an exclusive resort! I felt like the luckiest man alive! But the thing is, I didn't know ANYTHING technical about photography, I didn't know about composition, ISO, shutter speed or apertures. I was a layman really. But my boss didn't care about those technicalities and he told me very seriously on my first assignment: “Here's your camera, you have your first wedding at 6:00 pm“. And I was like: “ Okay, I better make this work...“ LOL. Fortunately for me (and most importantly, for the bride), the pictures didn't suck. But obviously, they were far from great and I didn't want to cheat myself or anybody else again, so after that experience, I committed myself to become the best photographer I could be. I've been studying, training, learning and practicing since then and I've never stopped. Now, I am so grateful because I do what I love the most, with the person I love the most. [Puerto Vallarta Wedding Photographer]